Escape From the Slave Market

by Apple Bottoms

Chapter 5

What Watermelon Seed didn’t realize, when she took that flying leap out of the train car, was that train cars for ponies were built with low steps to climb up and down. But for train cars that carried goods, the doors were much, much higher. And while Blue Cat had been able to haul himself up without incident, he was a large, strong stallion; Watermelon Seed was not.

A thrill of horror immediately overshadowed any hope as she sprang from the train car: the ground was much further away than it should have been. Although she had tried to jump out, too fearful of the churning wheels to simply climb down, she was still coming down at a precarious angle, and she did her best to brace for impact.

With Blue Cat roaring in disapproval behind her, she crashed into the ground as if in slow motion. She could tell she was going to land hard well before she did, but there was nothing she could do, only watch in distant horror as her forelegs slammed into the ground, then crumpled, the rest of her body soon following after. Once she made contact, everything felt like it sped up again, and she rolled, over and over, into the dense greenery. What had looked inviting and soft from the train became sharp and painful at high speeds, ripping at her coat and mane as she tried to shield her face with her forelegs. She rolled, almost as fast as the train had gone she thought, until she finally came to a broken halt.

She rolled onto her back, staring up at the blue sky in a daze. Every part of her body hurt, from the multitude of scratches on her body, to the sharp pains in her forelegs, to the way her head spun as she looked up. Oh, the clouds. It had been so long since she’d seen the sky, ages and ages; she’d gotten spoiled on it, living in Ponyville, going outside every day to run errands with Mommy. Down in the basement, she had missed it so keenly, and when they escaped it had been too dark to see anything. But now, oh! The sky! The clouds! They were so soft, and fluffy, they went on forever and ever above her. She could almost reach out and touch one -

“What th’ fuck are you doing?!”

The sudden appearance of an angry, yelling face in her peaceful cloudscape made Watermelon Seed scream a little, and she rolled away from Blue, trying to get to her hooves. But the rebellious pair in front crumpled painfully as she tried to put weight on them, and she couldn’t bite back a yelp of pain as she fell back to the ground.

“Don’t you know you could have been killed, you stupid cu- I said what the fuck are you doing!!” He bellowed, ears flat and neck muscles bulging, stamping on her tail as she tried to crawl away. “Don’t try to run away from me! I’m saving your life you ingrateful cocksucking no-good sonofabitch barnacle-licking motherfucking fatherless bastard child of a camel fucker with no -”

“Stooooooop!” Watermelon Seed wailed, ears flat, finally interrupting the furious ranting of the sailor above her. Hot, fat tears began to run down her cheeks as she sobbed, covering her ears with her aching front legs. “S-Stop y-yelling, I w-wanna go h-home, I w-whaaa - I waaaaant my mooooommyyyyyyyy!” Any semblance of words quickly melted away into insensate wailing, and Watermelon Seed curled in on herself, trying to hide from the stallion standing on her tail.

Blue Cat stood over her for a few long moments, chest heaving. His heart was beating fast and hot in his ears where they laid flat against his shorn mane, and he glared down at her mightily as his nostrils flared. Dimly, he was aware of Tilik as he caught up to him, his breath coming in sharp pants as he galloped through the path of broken underbrush Watermelon Seed had left behind.

“Warmar See!” Tilik gasped, horrified, and Blue was forced to look at her again, really look; look past the anger that clouded his vision, look past the eyes that only saw an ungrateful little brat, graciously rescued from a life of imaginable horrors. She didn’t know how good she had it, the spoiled little fuck, soft in the head and soft in the hoof from her pampered life, he should have left her back there, made her learn a few things about how bad life could get -

But then he saw all of the rapidly-reddening welts and cuts on her coat, too many for such a small body; the tiny shaking of her shoulders as she wailed, calling for a mother who was too far away to hear; the tiny forelegs, one twisted at a painful angle, covering her ears as she cringed away from his yelling, suddenly ringing so loud in his ears he could hardly believe it had been him at all.
He’d been this small, once; he’d been the one cowering while a looming stallion stood on his tail and screamed.

The sudden realization made him lift his hoof sharply, and his head tossed fitfully as he took a step back, as if Watermelon Seed was suddenly on fire. But the filly continued wailing, unaware that he’d moved, that the whole world seemed to be moving under his hooves like he was suddenly back on the Darter.

His chest heaved for a moment longer, his breathing more panicked than angry now, and as his ears slowly came back up and the ground stopped its rolling under him, he found that he was left staring down at his two charges. Tilik, scared but defiant, eyes darting between Watermelon and him, and Watermelon herself, wailing like she would never stop.

There was a moment where Blue stood still, looming over them uncertainly, before he lowered himself to the ground, lying on his belly beside Watermelon Seed. His ears flicked back and forth as he looked her over, and he finally reached out, touching her shoulder gently with his muzzle. She flinched away as if struck, wailing all the harder; but he stayed where he was, and spoke to her quietly when she paused to gasp for breath.

“I’m -” The words tangled in his throat, rebellious, fighting to stay hidden. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to - well, I did mean to scare you.” He corrected himself with a rumble, looking away, surprised to realize that he felt shame for yelling at a lowly slave.

Watermelon kept crying, but one eye, large and wet, peeked out from under her foreleg, and she lifted her good hoof a little bit from her ear.

“You … I was … scared.” Blue Cat admitted, with great difficulty, avoiding their gazes as if he wasn’t speaking to a pair of foals. “When you took off like that. You could have snapped your neck. Somepony might grab you. Something - bad might happen to you.”

“You scary.” Watermelon Seed hiccuped, trembling all over as she rubbed her nose.

“I get that a lot.” Blue Cat agreed, nodding gently as he slowly brought his eyes back to Watermelon Seed’s face.

“Yelled at me!” Watermelon whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut as her bottom lip trembled.

“That … yeah. I did.” Blue rumbled, frowning to himself.

“Said bad words! I thought you - thought you were gonna - hurt me!” Watermelon Seed sobbed, rubbing her eyes. “You were bad! Bad like the gryphon! Put a rope on me and - and dragged me around!”

Blue Cat’s ears flicked back, not quite a wince, but after a moment he nodded. “Yeah. I bet we seem pretty -” But he cut off sharply when he heard something, and he lifted his head, ears perked at alert and nostrils flaring. Tilik twisted, too, and almost immediately crouched down against Blue, trying to hide in the brush as the sound of voices filtered through the air.

“- yelling, from this side of the tracks, maybe bandits? Boss said we should check the cars -”

“We gotta go.” Blue Cat hissed, and hastily began pulling himself upright, no small effort for a stallion of his size. At his side, Watermelon Seed instinctively tried to get to her hooves as well, but soon collapsed to the ground, crying out softly as her forelegs gave way.

“M-My legs h-hurt -” Watermelon began to cry again, but her words were cut off as she felt something clamp onto the scruff of her neck and haul her into the air.

“Hold still.” Blue Cat rumbled through a mouthful of Watermelon’s coat, and began to gallop, creating a crashing path through the brush. Tilik followed behind him, too small to make much headway on his own, offering small, frightened chirps as they ran.

The distant voices behind them suddenly rose, angry and loud, and Watermelon covered her eyes fearfully as she bobbed. She swayed every time Blue Cat’s hooves left the ground, and every so often, a stray branch grabbed at her back legs, making her whinny in fear.

Something whistled past them, and Watermelon Seed opened her eyes, curiosity pushing the fear aside for a moment. What was that? Were there birds in the bushes? More voices whistled around them, and Watermelon tried to twist to look, unable to see anything that looked like any bird she recognized.

“Fuck, Tilik, zigzag - go this way - back and forth!” Blue Cat tried to yell, his mouth still full, and his teeth dug into Watermelon Seed’s coat a little harder as he veered sharply left, away from the whistling sound on his right. Tilik vanished as he ran the other way, his striped form disappearing in the thick blanket of brush around them.

Watermelon Seed didn’t have much time to worry about the whistling sound, since all of the back-and-forth was making her stomach do somersaults with each sharp twist of Blue Cat’s head. For once she was grateful that she hadn’t had anything to eat, since there was nothing to rise in her throat except for the taste of bile.

The forest was getting closer and closer with each zig-zagging hoofbeat, and just when Watermelon Seed started wondering why Blue was running this way - wouldn’t it be much faster to go straight to the forest? - one of the whistling voices became suddenly loud, and Blue Cat’s steady hoofbeats hiccuped.

His voice was painfully loud in her ears as he groaned, and the steady rhythm of his hoofbeats became staggered, random, and Watermelon Seed felt her nape start to slip free of his teeth as he jostled underneath her. She tried to grab hold of him with a panicked cry as she slid downwards, but the fearful scrabbling at his neck seemed to wake him up. He lifted her higher with a little jerk, resettling his grip on her as they raced to the forest, but far less smoothly now.

The whistling voices grew louder and louder, but Blue Cat kept on a straight path this time, although his breathing seemed to be coming a lot sharper, deeper and more ragged as it washed over her shoulders. Once even and strong, his hoofbeats had become arrhythmic, and Watermelon’s teeth jangled in her head painfully as she was pitched back and forth through the air.

Finally, with a groan of exhausted victory, Blue Cat staggered into the shade of the forest, twisting his head to start searching for Tilik - before his legs suddenly went out from under him, and he collapsed into the dirt with a wheezing moan.

Comments

[FoodFrogs]

Darts?

[Apple Bottoms]

8130569 Something like that!

[Cloud dawn]

Update?

[Apple Bottoms]

8368804
Hey there! Life got a little busy for me, and some of the 'fire' of updating the story got a little doused! I hope to get the drive/time to pick this one up again! I have a bad habit of leaving unfinished stories, but I've been pretty good about finishing everything I put up on FIMFiction!

[Cloud dawn]

8371607
Ah alright, take your time. Better take longer for it to come out looking great then immediately and horrible.

[Apple Bottoms]

8372301
That's a good point! I hope you will enjoy it whenever it comes out!

[Mother3Forever]

any news on the next chapter?